West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-08-12
HARpER's FERRY LETTER.
HARpER's FERRY, August s.

out with Nothing so difficult as a
beginning" going to show that even
Byron sometimes sat down to write
without any definite idea of what he
should say. We are in the same fix
now, for as we dip our pen for the
first time on this letter, we are at q
total loss for a subject. Luckily the
old stereotyped topic If the weather
comes to our relief, for the phenom-
email heat of the last two months can
hardly be classed with the inanities
which from the beginning OF time
have furnished themes for idea-less
people or served to fill awkward gaps
in conversation. A few days ago,
when the thermometer was above
100 in the water cooler, we were
cheered and consoled by thought
ful and considerable friend with the
suggestion that we were getting old
and indeed that our globe itself was
becoming efete and approaching
dissolution, and that the great heat
of the season was a merciful provis-
ion to put us and other sinners
through a course of acclimation pre-
paratory to our final settlement in
the sultry regions beyond the river
Styx. Thinking that there might
be something TO it, as the Yankee
says, we fell into a brown study and
ruminated until our attention was
turned to a passing funeral. The
coffin was not much bigger than an
ordinary cigar-bex, and it contained
the body of an infant of only few
months, but the tenant of the little
casket had been born, had wept and
had died, which is about all that can
be said justly of any one who has
passed thro' this vale of tears. The
remains were followed by the grief
stricken parents and long line of
sympathizing friends. We remem-
Der the congratulations that were
poured on the proud father and
mother short time ago because a
child was born into a world of sin
and sorrow and pain, and we could
not help contrasting the joy OF that
occasion with the tears now shed,
because the lucky infant has attain
ed without effort the great prize of
eternal bliss. To see US NOW it is
hard to realize that we were once
little boy, but it is fact, and we
thank Goodness that we can vet be
boy whenever we choose. The in
estinable gift of an optional renew
al of our youthful fancies is all the
fortune we inherited, but we ate sat
isfied and as thankful for it as San
cho Panza was to the man who in
vented sleep. In those far away
DAYS of our childhood we were fond
of wandering to very deep spring
or well, as it was called, on the old
home-place. There was no guard
wall to keep us from tumbling in
and, besides. the fountain had the
reputation of being haunted by a
grim old ancestor of ours-a trooper
of Montrose, who lost his life in the
unworthy cause Of the graceless
Stuarts. These considerations had
no terrors for us, and we were in
imminent peril of being drowned and
going straight to Heaven, but paren
tai love interposed and we were
soundly spanked for our temerity.
We grew up and it appeared to many
that our ways were leading us in the
opposite direction, ard for THIS we
have been spanked metaphorically,
at least, for the last forty years.
But we suppose it is all right, and
that even our inconsistencies are or
dained for the best. What on earth
has all this to do with Harper's
Ferry happenings? you will ask.
Nothing at all, we confess. 1t is
only prelude such as our good
friend John Kirby touches off to
test his violin strings and give him
start when he serenades us and
melts us to tears with that fine old
tune of which we are so fond. And
now for business.
Slavery & Co., have force of at
least one hundred and twenty-five
men at work preparing the way for
the erection of the paper mill, to
which we look with such eager
expectation, and it is to be hoped
that nothing will hereafter happen
to mar the prospect we now have of
a prosperous future.
On last Tuesday morning Mrs.
Julia Flood, housekeeper at the
Catholic parsonage at this place,
was found dead in her bed, and sew
eral physicians who were summoned
to post-mortem examination pro-
nounced that she had died of heart
disease. Her funeral was attended
by a large concourse of people, for
she was very highly respected in life
and her sudden and unexpected death
was a great shock to the community.
We have a we'll founded rumor of
the recent occurrence of an extraor-
binary case in the practice of DR.. B.
B. Ransom, an eminent physician of
this town. We do not feel at liberty
to give particulars, but we have no
doubt they will be published in the
periodicals devoted to the announce
ment of discoveries in medicine and
STRANGE exneriences of musicians.